Google Panda 2.5 Update?

[MoRaja]

On Sunday 18th Sept I noticed a huge drop in our rankings for keywords that we were doing extremely well.  Majority of the keyword SERP positions for our main targetted keywords were #1 and #2. These have all drop the bottom part of first page.

Other new keywords we were targetting had climbed very well (some hovering just below top 10 and some in top 10 of Google UK SERP. These have all completely dropped off.

Although analysing the site thouroughly (both on-page and link profile) it doesnt appear to have any issue significant enough to cause a penalty.

From Monday 20th Sept (everybody back to work) the threads here http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=76830633df82fd8e&hl=en&start=5760 and http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4364389.htm seem to be buzzing over unexpected SERP drops and increases.

By that I assume Panda 2.5 or at least some form of update taken/taking place? If anybody know of the reent heavy fluctuations which seem to have started in the weeken or have experienced unexpected positions increaes/drops, I would be very interested to hear/read from you.

Cheers,

Mo Raja

[RobertFisher]

I checked out your threads and a few of the sites that were wondering about Panda issues and just do not see it as a Panda issue. (If Google announces something today please disregard

I looked at several where they mention their sites and could see how they could fall as they were not even paying attention to the basics of on page optimization and links were not in the least associated with content. So, I think those type sites tend toward what I have just discovered is Pandamonium: A group hysteria around what Google is doing that helps to evade what we, as SEO professionals, are not.....

Sorry,

[AaronSchinke]

I'm sure what Robert meant to say is that it would depend on the environmental changes on your site as well as of the sites that are now beating you?

Have they initiated a linking program so that they have higher Authority? Did they change their on-page strategies? Has your page been mistakenly linked to by a bunch of low quality sites?

It is also possible that Google did tweak their algo, even if it wasn't a "Panda" tweak. Google themselves admit to changing the algo up to once a day.

If everything has stayed the same on your page as well as competitors, then it was probably a Google update...

[MoRaja]

Thanks for the responses so far. I'm pretty sure there is some sort of an update but as it was only just this weekend there may be more and more noises being made as more people notice huge shift in SERP ranks. Here's some interested threads where people are noticing shifts http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4364389.htm and http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=76830633df82fd8e&hl=en&start=5760.

@Aaron, nothing was changed on-page (apart from a few new pages being added).  No low quality sites linking to it (at least no new low quality links obtained for around 6 months).  I genarally have a habbit of thouroughly scrutinising each potential link partner checking even historical on-page and off-page data. Link building strategy in general was going really well and as mentioned, we were #1 for some important keywords. Other new 'target ' keywords were climbing pretty well and many were hovering just below first page.

Our main competitors have benefitted from this but have noticed some new faces on Google UK SERP since the weekend. The new sites now outranking us are more niche (for example www.keyword.co.uk rather than www.example.co.uk/keyword) but have a more spammy looking link profile made up of blog comments, spinned articles etc. Our off page is pretty strong as the landing pages have 60%+  page authority according to OSE with fairly high unique root domain links.

Everything has been checked in our end including on-page, off-page and GWT.

[KeriMorgret]

Barry Schwartz wrote about this yesterday on Search Engine Roundtable at http://www.seroundtable.com/google-panda-25-14051.html. Some people had seen changes and he contacted Google, and they said "There was no update in the past couple days. The most recent update was in August, when we rolled out the algorithm change internationally to most languages."

So, you're not alone in seeing changes, but it's not an algo change according to Google.

[MoRaja]

Noticed more and more position shifts the week and also reading similar reports from others. This is for Google UK by the way, not google.com.

A neglected website of mine with lots of (not so great) content rocketted onto top of second page from absolutely nowhere. Other sites with good link profiles seem to have dropped. Whether it's Panda or not, something 'content' related seemed to have happened (or happening) in Google UK.

[buddhuu]

Mo said: "A neglected website of mine with lots of (not so great) content rocketted onto top of second page from absolutely nowhere. Other sites with good link profiles seem to have dropped. "

I've seen the same thing. Two sites in the same niche - one main commerce site and one supporting information/community site. The latter has been largely neglected over the last 18 months. Few updates, no link building.

The former is constantly updated with good, substantial content, is supported by social media activity and has good new links built constantly. It is a strong brand in its niche. The info site, on the other hand, is not strongly branded.

The weak, neglected site is now outperforming the main commerce set for our trophy keywords and for several other volume, high conversion phrases. Some significant drops for the commerce site.

For us the change happened on the confirmed Panda 2.5 day at the end of the month.